I [heart] Yelp!

Wow, July will be over soon and I think this is my first blog post this month.

I blame it all on Yelp. While I haven't been posting here, I have become a somewhat prolific Yelper. In case you don't know what Yelp is, it's a community of people reviewing local businesses. I first discovered Yelp when trying to find out about local businesses and having the most useful results that came up for me time and time again be Yelp reviews until eventually I stopped Googling places and went straight to search Yelp for them, and finally became so grateful for Yelp's usefulness that I started "yelping" myself.

Yelp was founded by a couple of guys in San Francisco, so you will find the most reviews and the most active community there. I guess that makes me kind of lucky living in that area and all, but you can Yelp basically any business any place in the U.S., and I'm a bit jealous of you if you live in a smaller metropolitan area...you're live in the Yelp version of the Wild West!

There's just something about Yelp...you can find reviews of most anything elsewhere online, but this is just really well done, very Web 2.0, and so many of the reviews are just...well...sassy! They even have a rating system where you can rate the reviews "useful", "funny" or "cool" (I seem to be more useful than anything else, then cool, then funny. Damn, I need to work on my "funny") and ratings for how many friends, fans and reviews you have, as well. You can also achieve some Yelp fame by being awarded "review of the day" or "first to review", and then there is the elusive "Elite" status.

Elite status is something awarded to people who have at least a certain number of reviews that meet at least a certain standard of quality of writing. You must also have a real picture of yourself posted and use your real name. One of the perks of Elite status is invitations to free "elite only" events where local restaurants will wine and dine you to try and show Yelp eliters how great they are and get good ratings from them. A dangerous proposition if your place sucks, but a really smart idea if you're great but just need to get the word out.

I've found that Yelp actually helps me to appreciate restaurants and other businesses/services better, since it makes me really think about why I do what I do or like what I like and then verbalize it. Great for one's analytical skills and for writing skills as well...and unlike this blog, people actually read my reviews and give me feedback.

Oh hey, if you are on Yelp and want to be my friend (or fan), check me out at http://jinx.yelp.com